Chapter 31 Chapter 30 Xiandi Liu Xie

Liu Xie, Emperor Xian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was born in the fourth year of Xuanhe (AD 181).In the sixth year of Zhongping, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty passed away, and his son Liu Bian succeeded to the throne.Soon, Liu Bian was abolished by Dong Zhuo, and Liu Xie was supported as emperor at the age of 9. The process of Han Xiandi Liu Xierong's ascension to the throne was quite bumpy and full of drama, which can be described as karma and twists and turns. Liu Xie's mother, Wang Meiren, was the granddaughter of Wang Bao, a former general of five senses.At that time, Empress He was in charge of Lingdi's harem. She was born in a butcher's family. She was elected into the palace by bribing eunuchs and became a queen. She was very jealous of Wang Meiren.Therefore, when Wang Meiren became pregnant, she was afraid of provoking Empress He's further jealousy, so she didn't tell Emperor Ling, but secretly took medicine to have an abortion.But the medication didn't work, and the baby was born anyway.Empress He really became jealous, fearing that Wang Meiren's having a son would further threaten her status, so she instigated someone to secretly put the poison in the decoction that Wang Meiren took after giving birth, and Wang Meiren died immediately after drinking it.When Emperor Ling heard the news, he went to the harem to have an inspection. Seeing that Wang Meiren's limbs were black and blue, he knew that she had died of poisoning.Urgently ordered to track down the murderer, and soon found out that it was Empress He.Emperor Ling couldn't help being furious, intending to depose Empress He immediately.Empress He had paid huge sums of money to buy eunuchs Cao Jie and others who were trusted by Emperor Ling.Liu Xie was not yet full-term at this time, and Emperor Ling feared that Liu Xie would be assassinated in the harem, so he carried him to Yongle Palace and asked Empress Dowager Dong to raise him.Since then, Liu Xie has relied on Dong's family as his family.

In his later years, Emperor Ling faced the problem of choosing the crown prince.Empress He gave birth to the prince Liu Bian, who was fostered by a family of folk historians since childhood.Liu Bian was older than Liu Xie, and was born of the empress, so the position of the crown prince should be his.But Liu Bian behaved frivolously, without the majesty and dignity that a monarch should have.Liu Xie grew up in Yongle Palace since he was a child, and was raised by Empress Dowager Dong with great care and dignified behavior, which won the love of Emperor Ling.Coupled with the untimely death of his mother Wang Meiren, Emperor Ling inevitably felt compassionate, so he was inclined to make Liu Xie the crown prince.However, this is contrary to the royal family's tradition of establishing an heir with the heir first, so he has been unable to make up his mind for a long time.

In the sixth year of Zhongping (AD 189), Emperor Ling was seriously ill, and his will entrusted Liu Xie to the eunuch Shangjun Jianshuo.In April, Emperor Ling died, and Liu Bian was established as Emperor Shaodi.Empress He was also renamed as Empress Dowager He, and she handled government affairs in court.In fact, the power of the country has already been grasped by He Jin.Since then, the eunuchs in the inner palace and the important officials in the court have launched a battle for power and profit.First, He Jin captured and killed Jian Shuo; then the eunuch Zhang Rang and others killed He Jin; Yuan Shao, the lieutenant of Sili, and Huben Zhonglang led Yuan Shu and He Jin's generals to counterattack, killing another 2,000 eunuchs at once.Zhang Rang, Duan Gui and others were powerless to fight back, so they hijacked Shao Di and Chen Liu Wang Liu Xie and fled.Shangshu Lu Zhi chased him, killed Zhang Rang and Duan Gui, and welcomed Shaodi and Liu Xie back to the palace.Lu Zhi and his party walked to the west of Luoyang City, just in time to meet Dong Zhuo leading troops to rescue him.Seeing Dong Zhuo's generals and soldiers being arrogant and domineering, the young emperor couldn't help crying when he thought of the many disasters and disasters he had just become emperor, and his future was uncertain.Dong Zhuo asked him about the situation, and he cried so hard that he couldn't speak.Dong Zhuo turned around and asked Liu Xie, but Liu Xie spoke clearly.Dong Zhuo thought that Liu Xie was very talented; in addition, Liu Xie was adopted by the Empress Dowager Dong when he was a child, and Dong Zhuo thought he was of the same family as the Empress Dowager Dong, so from then on, Dong Zhuo wanted to abolish Emperor Shao and make Liu Xie the new emperor.

After returning to the capital, Dong Zhuo's army completely controlled the situation.So Dong Zhuo forced the young emperor to dismiss Sikong Liu Hong and take his place himself.Then, Dong Zhuo convened a meeting of officials in his capacity as Sikong, and proposed to change Liu Xie, the king of Chenliu, as emperor.All the officials were shocked, but feared by Dong Zhuo's tyranny, no one dared to object.The next day, Dong Zhuo announced the abolition of Liu Bian, the young emperor, and made Liu Xie, the king of Chenliu, the emperor. He was 9 years old at the time.From then on, Liu Xie began his long career as a puppet emperor.

After Emperor Xian was established, Dong Zhuo proclaimed himself Prime Minister, and later he was proclaimed Grand Master, completely controlling the central government.Dong Zhuo's army looted property in Luoyang, raped women, and committed all kinds of crimes. In the spring of the second year (the first year of Chuping, 190 A.D.), the shepherds of prefectures and counties all over the country raised their troops in the name of crusade against Dong Zhuo.Because the states and counties where the troops were raised were all in the Kanto (east of Tongguan), it was called the "Kwantung Army" in history.Many local tyrants responded to this uprising, and brought their own private soldiers and trilogy to travel thousands of miles away. Since then, the prelude to the melee between warlords in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty has officially opened.The Kwantung Army promoted Yuan Shao, the prefect of Bohai Sea, as the leader, and surrounded Luoyang from the north, east, and west.Threatened by the Kwantung Army, Dong Zhuo hijacked Emperor Xian and moved his capital to Chang'an from Luoyang.At this time, Wang Yun served as Situ and presided over specific government affairs.On the surface, he attached himself to Dong Zhuo, secretly turned to the Han Dynasty, and united a group of officials from the court and China.

In the second year of Chuping (AD 191), in order to compete for political leadership, the Kwantung princes, headed by Yuan Shao and Han Fu, proposed to establish Youzhou Mu Liuyu as emperor.But this suggestion was opposed by Yuan Shu and Cao Cao, and finally gave up.At this time, Liu Yu's son Liu He was serving as an attendant at the Emperor Xiandi's office in Chang'an.Emperor Xian wanted to rely on the strength of the Kwantung Army to return the capital to Luoyang, so as to get rid of Dong Zhuo's control, so he sent Liu Heqian out of Wuguan to ask for help.But at this time, the Mushou of Guandong Prefecture was keen to merge with each other to strengthen his strength and expand his territory, and had no intention of begging Dong Zhuo.Chang'an turned to rely on internal forces to overthrow Dong Zhuo.

In the third year of Chuping (192 A.D.), Situ Wangyun, Huang Wan, the school captain of Sili, Sun Rui, the servant of archery, and Lv Bu, the general of Zhonglang, conspired to assassinate Dong Zhuo.Lu Bu was originally Dong Zhuo's confidant, and had a righteous father-son relationship.Dong Zhuo has a violent personality. Once Lü Bu violated Dong Zhuo's intentions for a trivial matter, Dong Zhuo pulled out his halberd and threw it at Lv Bu.Lv Bu hurriedly dodged, and afterwards he bent down to Dong Zhuo to plead guilty, and then he gave up.As a result, there was a gap between the two.Wang Yun asked Lu Bu to assassinate Dong Zhuo.After Dong Zhuo's death, Wang Yun recorded the affairs of the minister, and Lu Bu was promoted to General Fenwei, and the two presided over the government together.After Wang Yun succeeded, he was arrogant and complacent, coupled with his narrow mind, he failed to maintain the situation in Guanzhong.After Wang Yun was killed, Emperor Xian fell into the hands of Li Jue, Guo Si and others.

In the first year of Xingping (194 A.D.), there was a severe drought in Sanfu, and the price of grain was high. A piece of Dendrobium was worth 500,000 yuan, and people in Chang'an city ate people.Emperor Xian ordered Hou Wen, the censor, to go out of Taicang to cook porridge with rice and beans to help the poor, but it was still reported that many people died of starvation.Emperor Xian suspected that Hou Wen was playing tricks, so he sent people to take five liters of rice and five liters of beans to make porridge, only two pots.It turned out that Hou Wen was indeed corrupt, so he beat Hou Wen 50 sticks.The hungry people in Chang'an City finally got their lives.Regarding this matter, later historians commented: "It seems that Emperor Xian is not a fatuous and incompetent person, but the reason why he lost the world is because the authority has gone, and small favors are not enough to buy people's hearts."

In the second year of Xingping (AD 195), Li Jue and Guo Si had internal strife, and they supported each other in Chang'an City.Emperor Xian sent Shangshu and Shizhong to reconcile Li and Guo, but they refused.In order to win the political initiative, Guo Si conspired to hijack Emperor Xian to his own military camp. Unexpectedly, before Guo Si made his move, the news leaked out. Li Jue rushed ahead and sent troops to kidnap Emperor Xian, the empress, palace officials and ministers. .Li Jue and Guo Si attacked each other for a month, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, and the city of Chang'an was in ruins.Soon, Emperor Xian escaped from the control of Li and Guo and fled to Hongnong under the escort of Yang Feng, the former general of Li Jue, and Qu Dong Cheng of Niu Fu's tribe.He traveled east again and arrived in Luoyang the following year (the first year of Jian'an, 196 AD).

At this time, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were engaged in frequent political and military struggles in the Central Plains. Sun Ce occupied Jiangdong, Liu Biao occupied Jingzhou, Liu Zhang ruled Yizhou, Liangzhou was occupied by Han Sui and Ma Teng, and Gongsun Du occupied Liaodong.Returning the emperor to the east is undoubtedly a banner that can be used.Cao Cao was the first to lead an army into Luoyang, and gained the status of "holding the emperor to command the princes".Then, he hijacked Emperor Xian and moved the capital to Xuchang. Of course Emperor Xian was not reconciled to being a puppet.He wrote the secret edict and asked Dong Cheng, the chariot general, to hide it in his belt and take it out. He ordered the clan Liu Bei, Changshui Xiaowei Zhongji, general Wu Zilan, Wang Fu and others to plot to get rid of Cao Cao.In the spring of the second year (the fifth year of Jian'an, 200 A.D.), Dong Cheng and others conspired and were killed by Cao Cao.By the 12th year of Jian'an (207 AD), Cao Cao basically unified the north.In the second year, Cao Cao set up the three official offices, the prime minister, and the imperial doctor, and Cao Cao became the prime minister himself.

Empress Xiandi Fu was shocked by Cao Cao's killing of dissidents, so she wrote to her father, Fu Wan, to enumerate Cao Cao's cruelty and ask her father to prepare to overthrow Cao Cao, but Fu Wan never dared to act.In the nineteenth year of Jian'an (AD 214), Empress Fu's secret letter was leaked.When Cao Cao heard about it, he ordered Emperor Xian to abolish Empress Fu, and wrote an edict to abolish Empress Fu on behalf of Emperor Xian.Then, Chi Ji, the imperial historian, was sent to take the imperial edict, and together with Shang Shu Ling Hua Xin led troops to surround the palace to search for the queen.Empress Fu hid in the palace wall and was dragged out by Hua Xin.At this time, Emperor Xian was sitting with Xi Xi in the outer hall.Empress Fu walked out with disheveled hair and bare feet, crying to Emperor Xian, "Can't you beg for my life?" Emperor Xian sighed and said, "I don't know when my life will end!" Turning around, he said to Xi Ji : "Xi Gong! How can there be such a reason in the world!" Xi Xi and others ignored Emperor Xian, put Empress Fu in prison, and died of claustrophobia.Empress Fu's two sons were also poisoned to death, and more than 100 people from the Fu clan were executed.In the 20th year of Jian'an (215 A.D.), Cao Cao appointed his daughter Cao Jie as the Empress Xiandi. In the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an (220 A.D.), Cao Cao died of illness, and his son Cao Pi became the king of Wei.In this year, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian to abdicate and proclaimed himself the Son of Heaven, marking the final demise of the Eastern Han regime. After Emperor Xian was abolished, Cao Pi granted him the title of Duke of Shanyang, with 10,000 households in Shiyi.Another 14 years later, in the second year of Wei Qinglong (AD 234), Emperor Xian died at the age of 54.In the same year, he was buried in the Zen Mausoleum with the etiquette of the Emperor of Han, and he was given the posthumous title of "Emperor Xian".